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Serving Suggestions: 7/18/17

Fellow CSA members, your patience has paid off! This week brings the best share we have had yet with the first appearances of fingerling potatoes, carrots and peppers. You might already have some standby recipes for your favorites in this week’s box, but if you do need a new idea, Shana is here to help:

Nightshade time! This may be my favorite CSA time of the year. We are still getting greens, but not in such huge quantities and the nightshade family (my favorite) is making its debut. Eggplant, peppers and tomatoes (soon to come) abound and the cooking possibilities explode!

I used to watch Jess make a quick dish of sautéed onions, peppers and sausage for her family and that has now become a regular in my household. I use Wrong Direction’s Sweet Italian sausage, which is incredible, de-case it, brown it and add onions, peppers and this week I even added some of the bitter dandelion greens – yum!

Aside from ratatouille (which if you haven’t taken a stab at Julia Child’s version, although you will need some time, you should as it is amazing) and variations on grilled or roasted eggplant, some folks were buzzing about the idea of homemade baba ganoush. This is easy, healthy and a great snacking dip to have in your fridge! Check out the recipe here.

Also an awesome dish to use some of the bountiful parsley and cucumbers is tabouli salad! It is so fresh and crisp at this very hot time in the year and a nice change from regular salad. Enjoy!

If you’re on the half-share like Bob, you probably have last week’s head of cauliflower in the fridge and are looking to use it before it goes bad. Here’s how he plans to use it:

I have to admit that I don’t love cauliflower so I am always looking for dishes that help mask the flavor a bit. While searching for recipes last week, I came across one from Jamie Oliver that sounded interesting: Sicilian Cauliflower & Chickpea Stew. The “stew” is a pretty straightforward mixture of sauteed onion and cauliflower, stewed tomatoes and chickpeas, all served over couscous. He also adds plenty of chili, garlic, some cinnamon, olives and raisins which I found to be an interesting combo. Although it isn’t written that way, the recipe can easily be cooked in one pot (plus the bowl to soak the couscous) and should only take about 30 minutes to complete. I’ll be giving it a try, subbing raisins for dried cranberries that I had in the pantry already, fingers crossed!

Serving Suggestions is a recurring article that will be posted weekly during the CSA season featuring photos, tips and recipes. Content is provided by Jessica, Shana and Bob. If you would like to submit your own photos or recipes, please email Bob at robertfcowper@gmail.com. To read through previous Serving Suggestions articles, click here for an archive. You can also use the handy search feature at the top of the right hand menu bar to search for the name of a particular ingredient you need help using.